


Drowning

by Noremac



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Drowning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Not Really Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 05:31:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/807852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noremac/pseuds/Noremac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was usually Wally that got hurt. Not this time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowning

It was usually Wally- Kid Flash- that got hurt. He wasn’t sure why. Probably because his accelerated healing made him careless. But this time, Wally was fine. He didn’t even have a scratch. It was Dick- Robin- who had been caught in the explosion and thrown underwater, unconscious. And it was Wally’s fault. He should have been there, should have been helping Dick, should have protected him. But instead, he was sitting in Happy Harbor eating ice cream. Ice cream. While his best friend was in Gotham, the most corrupted city in the country, fighting for his life against the Joker. Of course, as soon as Wally got the call for backup he was on his way, but he wasn’t there from the beginning. And now Dick was slowly sinking, blood from a wound in his side clouding the water, and Wally couldn’t get to him, couldn’t get past Harley Quinn, the Joker’s stupid sidekick! Finally Bruce- Batman- showed up, but Dick was still sinking, and Wally couldn’t see him anymore. Bats looked at him like he was crazy when he sped to the water and dove in, but just before Wally lost sight of his face, he saw a look of dawning comprehension and horror. But Wally was too busy looking for his best friend to care. At last, he caught a glimpse of the yellow cape, a red stain on it that Wally didn’t want to contemplate. He swam as quickly as he could after his friend and dragged him back out of the water. He wasn’t breathing.

“No, Rob, you’ve gotta wake up. C’mon, Dick.” He started pressing on Dick’s chest, trying to remember his lessons on CPR through his panic. He fit his mouth over his friend’s, trying to reinflate his empty lungs. It wasn’t working.

“C’mon, Rob, I know you’re alive. One little explosion isn’t gonna kill you. I mean, how many times have you almost died? I mean, jeez, you’ve survived Bane, and Savage, and the Injustice League! Are you really gonna let the Joker, of all people, kill you?”

Dick was turning white. His skin under Wally’s hands was cold. He wasn’t responding to the CPR. Wally could feel tears pouring down his face. There were yells in the background, and the sound of an exploding batarang, but Wally wasn’t going to let himself get distracted. He had to save Dick! It was his fault that he was dying! He wasn’t going to let him actually die!

He felt hands grasping his arms, trying to pull him off of Dick, and he lashed backwards, elbowing whoever it was in the stomach before going back to his friend. Arms covered in black Kevlar wrapped around him, dragging him away, but he squirmed out of their grasp and dashed back to Dick.

“Kid Flash! Wally! You’ve got to stop! He’s- he’s dead.” Batman, Bruce Wayne, Dick’s adoptive father, was yelling at him. He glanced over and saw the Joker and Harley tied up and thrown in a pile, and Bats standing next to him, looking down at his ward with a look of grief in his eyes, his normally expressionless face twisted into a frown.

“He’s not! I can save him! I can-” Wally stopped talking and twisted back to his friend, his Robin, and placed his hands on his chest. He pushed down a few times, then slowed to a halt, bending over Dick’s body and sobbing.

“He’s not- he can’t be- he’s...” he lay his forehead on Dick’s chest and cried. At some point his uncle showed up and tried pulling him off, but he clung to his friend like his life depended on it. His best friend was dead, but he couldn’t be dead, because he was Robin, the Boy Wonder, who always had a sarcastic comment or a joking insult ready, who had been training since he was nine years old with the Batman, who was always ready to protect his friends, whatever the cost- but his friends couldn’t protect him. Wally had failed him, was the reason for his death, was completely to blame. He stood up, ready to dash off to who knows where, wanting to get as far away as he could from his dead friend, his failure.

Just as he vanished, quickly tailed by his uncle, Dick gasped in a breath. Batman, who had been about to go back to the criminals and punish them for what they had done to his sidekick, his ward, his son, spun around and fell to his knees.

“D- Robin, you’re alive!” The boy looked up, surprised to see tears glistening in the corner of his pseudo-father’s eyes.

“Batman, what-” he broke off, coughing. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

“You... we thought you were dead.”

Dick stared at him, absorbing the information, then asked, “We?”

“Flash and his sidekick were here. Kid ran off a minute ago, just before you woke up. His uncle followed him.”

“Wally thinks I’m dead? We have to tell him! He-”

“Later.” Batman interrupted. “You have to rest. I will find him.”

Robin, satisfied for the moment with this, felt himself drifting off again. He fell asleep to the feel of Bruce’s arms wrapping around him and the comforting voice whispering that everything was going to be okay.

When he opened his eyes again, he found Alfred sitting by his bedside and Jason pacing off to the side.

“Master Richard. It is good to see you awake.”

“Dick! Do that again and I’ll kill you.”

“How long have I been asleep?” Dick tried to speak, but he found his mouth and throat dry and parched. Alfred, seeing his trouble, helped him to drink from a glass of water next to his bed, and he repeated his question.

“Just over a day. We have all been quite worried about you, sir.”

“Did Bruce find Wally? He ran off. He thought I was dead.”

Alfred was silent, giving Dick enough time to start getting worried.

“Master Wallace has not yet been found. Master Bruce and Master Bartholomew are searching for him at the present moment, and hope to find him before the day is out.”

“What! Why can’t they find him? Where would he go?”

“They do not know. His uncle attempted to follow him, but he broke the speed of light and escaped. He was quite upset.”

“Doesn’t he have his comm in?” He knew before he finished his question that the answer was no, but he finished speaking anyway, just in case.

“He does not. It was found in Eastern China in a koi pond.”

“I have to go look for him.”

“No you don’t!” Jason finally spoke. “If Bruce and Barry can’t find him, there’s no way in hell you’ll be able to, especially when you’ve just recovered from almost drowning.”

Dick sunk back into his bed, resigned to waiting.

“Okay. Alfred, I’m kind of hungry. Could I have something to eat?”

“Of course. Master Jason, if you would help me prepare a meal I would be most grateful.”

“Yeah, sure.” As Alfred walked out the door, he shot a look back at the boy in the bed. Dick thought he saw the butler wink before the door closed between them. He wasted no time getting out of bed- stumbling a bit from the unexpected weakness in his legs- and donning his Robin outfit. By the time the other two occupants of the house had returned, his window was open and he was long gone.

Dick arrived at the hill at about the same time Alfred and Jason arrived at his room. He knew Wally would show up there at some point. It was the place where they had first met.

Wally had been twelve, Dick, nine. Batman had finally been able to get his head around the idea of introducing his ward to another sidekick, although he was still very protective. He had invited Barry and his nephew to Gotham for a patrol, because Kid Flash was the only sidekick who was close to Robin’s age. They had hit it off immediately, though Wally had stayed terrified of Batman for several more years. After a night of wandering around the city, the two boys could barely go a week without seeing each other. Wally would run to Gotham and meet Dick at the top of the hill, under a big oak tree. They would sometimes wander around the city in civvies, or fight crime, or just sit and talk. Every once in awhile Wally would run them to Central, or to some city or town that neither of them had ever heard of. It wasn’t long before Kid Flash had told the other his secret identity, and though it took a few years, Wally was the first person that Robin had ever revealed himself to. Both of those events had happened on the hill. Dick was sure that, once he had calmed down a little, Wally would go there to think.

As it turned out, the other boy was already there. Dick’s heart broke a little when he saw his best friend clutching his knees to his chest and sobbing under the tree. He ran to Wally’s side and dropped into a crouch beside him.

“Wally!”

The sidekick looked up, surprised. His face paled, his expression twisting into sadness and shock.

“Dick? You... I saw you die. You were dead.”

“It’s okay, Wally. I survived. I’m alive.”

“You...” He broke off and leaped at his friend, gathering him into a hug and burying his face in the younger boy’s shoulder. All Dick could do was cling to him and whisper words of comfort as Wally cried his eyes out in relief and lingering sadness. Eventually, both of their exhaustion got the better of them and they fell asleep.

That was where their mentors found them a few hours later. They were carried back to the Wayne mansion, where they woke up the next day, still clinging to each other’s hands for comfort.


End file.
